06/21/2011

A Very Special Tea With Very Special Ladies

I am reposting this piece that I wrote in 2009. Please be in prayer for these precious women....different set of women this Thursday, 6/23/2011, but at the same facility. We will covet your prayers on their behalf! God has a special work to do in these ladies' lives!

This is a very humbling post to write. I would like to open this post by giving you the words from Romans 3:23-24, which state, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus".

I have been sitting here on the bed reading the word and praying that God would prepare my heart for what will hopefully and prayerfully be a very special day tomorrow. You see, tomorrow, I have been given the most humbling opportunity of serving a real English style, highly lady-like tea to a VERY special group of unlikely tea party attendants. I do not use the words "highly unlikely" as a derogatory statement about these very special women. In fact, I use it quite positively. I will be joining a group of other women tomorrow at 2:00 in the afternoon to hostess a group of about 60+ ladies at a local residential treatment program. By "treatment program", I mean exactly that. These ladies are being treated for drug abuse and alcohol abuse and are residents at a local facility especially for women (I am withholding the name of the facility in order to protect their privacy and anonymity) The ladies ministry at my church is heavily involved with ministering to these very special ladies. So, tomorrow, we will be serving them. As I said before, they are probably ladies who may not necessaily have ever attended a real tea party or even entertained the idea of attending such. But tomorrow, they are the highly honored guests-God's highly honored guests. These are ladies who may not have ever considered themselves "highly honored" by anyone. But the Lord sees them as highly honored and He has called us to treat them as he would treat them--as the royal guests of HIS table. Tomorrow, as we set the tables with our fine china and linens, clotted cream, lemon curd and all of the dainties that you would expect at a proper tea, please remember these EXTREMELY special ladies in your hearts and your prayers. Please pray that they will be sensitive and receptive to the word of God and that they will be receptive to those of us who are serving them. We are not going to this tea for ourselves, but for them. We are there to love on them and show them that they are just as equally deserving of being treated like a true lady, just as any of us are. We are there to show them God's perfect love. I'm sure that many of these women have experienced many rock bottom times in their lives, maybe even as recent as the last few weeks. They are not necessarily from any really different places from which some of us came. God still shows grace and mercy and He still meets people where they are. I pray that they will be overwhelmed tomorrow, not with those of us who serve but that they will be overwhelmed with the love of God. I thank you in advance for your prayers for them. I know that you may not know their names, but I assure you, God knows them one by one.

I will leave you with this parable from Luke 7:

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” 40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied. 41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver[i] to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” 50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

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A Very Special Tea With Very Special Ladies

I am reposting this piece that I wrote in 2009. Please be in prayer for these precious women....different set of women this Thursday, 6/23/2011, but at the same facility. We will covet your prayers on their behalf! God has a special work to do in these ladies' lives!

This is a very humbling post to write. I would like to open this post by giving you the words from Romans 3:23-24, which state, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus".

I have been sitting here on the bed reading the word and praying that God would prepare my heart for what will hopefully and prayerfully be a very special day tomorrow. You see, tomorrow, I have been given the most humbling opportunity of serving a real English style, highly lady-like tea to a VERY special group of unlikely tea party attendants. I do not use the words "highly unlikely" as a derogatory statement about these very special women. In fact, I use it quite positively. I will be joining a group of other women tomorrow at 2:00 in the afternoon to hostess a group of about 60+ ladies at a local residential treatment program. By "treatment program", I mean exactly that. These ladies are being treated for drug abuse and alcohol abuse and are residents at a local facility especially for women (I am withholding the name of the facility in order to protect their privacy and anonymity) The ladies ministry at my church is heavily involved with ministering to these very special ladies. So, tomorrow, we will be serving them. As I said before, they are probably ladies who may not necessaily have ever attended a real tea party or even entertained the idea of attending such. But tomorrow, they are the highly honored guests-God's highly honored guests. These are ladies who may not have ever considered themselves "highly honored" by anyone. But the Lord sees them as highly honored and He has called us to treat them as he would treat them--as the royal guests of HIS table. Tomorrow, as we set the tables with our fine china and linens, clotted cream, lemon curd and all of the dainties that you would expect at a proper tea, please remember these EXTREMELY special ladies in your hearts and your prayers. Please pray that they will be sensitive and receptive to the word of God and that they will be receptive to those of us who are serving them. We are not going to this tea for ourselves, but for them. We are there to love on them and show them that they are just as equally deserving of being treated like a true lady, just as any of us are. We are there to show them God's perfect love. I'm sure that many of these women have experienced many rock bottom times in their lives, maybe even as recent as the last few weeks. They are not necessarily from any really different places from which some of us came. God still shows grace and mercy and He still meets people where they are. I pray that they will be overwhelmed tomorrow, not with those of us who serve but that they will be overwhelmed with the love of God. I thank you in advance for your prayers for them. I know that you may not know their names, but I assure you, God knows them one by one.

I will leave you with this parable from Luke 7:

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat. 37 When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. 38 Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping. Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!” 40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.” “Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied. 41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver[i] to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” 43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. 47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” 50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”